Chapter 18 Myth: Cellulosic Ethanol Can Scale up and Cut U.S. Oil Imports

1. Chapter 18Myth: Cellulosic Ethanol Can Scale up and Cut U.S. Oil Imports By Mitchell Kramer

2. Not a new idea • “From our cellulose waste products on the farm such as straw, corn-stalks, corn cobs and all similar sorts of material we throw away, we can get, by present known methods, enough alcohol to run our automotive equipment in the United States.” –Thomas Midgley • 1921 • “Advanced biofuels from cellulosic material… can play a key role in reducing the vulnerabilities, emissions and costs associated with imported oil, while also providing new economic opportunities for America’s farm communities.”-Ted Turner & T Boone Pickens • 2009

3. Issues with the process • Low power density, 0.4 watts per square meter compared to natural gas at 24 • Replacing 10% of U.S. Oil with Cellulosic ethanol would require approximately 10% of the U.S.’s farmland, which is about the size of the state of Oklahoma. • Production of Cellulosic Ethanol requires 42 times as much water and produces 50% more CO2 when compared to standard gasoline. • Doesn't replace any other petroleum products, i.e. doesn’t make the U.S. any less dependent on foreign oil, especially with diesel and jet fuel demand on the rise.

4. Summary • After 70+ years not much has changed • U.S. still needs oil from other countries to function • This is not the kind of problem that can be fixed with money. • As H. L. Mencken said, there is always a “well-known solution to every human problem– neat, plausible, and wrong.

5. Questions • How long have people been trying to use Cellulosic ethanol for gasoline replacement. • 90+ years • How much land would be required to replace 10% of the U.S. oil supply? • 10% of all U.S. farmland

6. Questions?